Monday, October 29, 2012

A Mother's Love

This morning I sent off my middle child to Outdoor School.  He was super excited.

 I received my first phone call at 6:00 PM.  His stomach was upset.  He was teary and anxious and we talked and he didn't really feel better, but went on to do the next activity. I received my second phone call at 8:30 from his teacher letting me know that he was on his night hike and doing well.

A mother's love and a little encouragement, was what he needed to make it through the next few hours into the night.  This boy does not like to be away from me.  He hates it when I go away for a weekend with daddy or the girls.  He hates being left behind.  He finds his security in me.

I am teaching him to find his security in Jesus.

I love this child so much.  So much I can hardly stand it sometimes. I want him to be secure in the love I have, to feel safe, guarded, and cared for.  Still, because of my human nature, my love is finite, conditional, wavering.

In Christ we are loved completely, wholly, infinitely.  We don't always accept the love that Christ has to offer, but He continues to offer us this never ending love.  He offers this love no matter what we do, how we act, how much we refuse Him or run away, His love is always there, available.

This is what I want to give my children.  Perfect love, all the time, no matter what.
But I can't.  I will fail miserably in this endeavor.  I can only point them towards their Heavenly Father and encourage them to have a relationship with the One who will always be their security, their safety, their perfect and complete love.  Which, is even better than a mother's love.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Adoption Rules

My children are adopted.  All of them.  Even the ones who look just like me or daddy.

Here are some questions/statements you may not ask me.  Ever.

But, if you do, I've included my standard answers.  They are mostly snarky, because adoption is personal and none of your business.

1. Are you babysitting?
Um, no.  Why would you think that?

2. Are you doing foster care?
(This often follows question 1), Again, no. Stop asking me stupid questions.

3. Are they all yours?
Yes, all of them.

4. Wow, you must be busy.
Yes, we are busy. Every mom is busy.

5. You saved them from a horrible life.
I did?  Do you know their birthparents?  I had no idea.  Could you please tell me more about their birth situation.  No?  Then stop talking.

6. Where are they from?
Why do you ask?  or  Where are you from? or  Are you planning a trip?

7. Are they siblings?
Yes, I am their mother.

8. No, I mean, are they biological siblings.
Again, I am their mother.  or What does biology have to do with family?

9. You are so amazing to do this.
Really, thank you so much!  I'm just a mom, but I'm so happy that you recognize my worth.

10. So, you couldn't have your own?  (a personal favorite)
I did have my own, here they are. or
We tried really hard to not have our own, maybe you should have tried harder.


Sleep, part 2

It's 1:54 AM and the child with all the letters is up.  Pretty sure it has to do with not getting his meds until really late, again.

I totally own this one.  I didn't give them to him after school because he had tutoring.  And then, when I usually give the meds to him, I was distracted by his brother who informed me that he felt sick to his stomach and could he please go home instead of dance. My priorities include no vomit in car. Drop off sick child at home, continue with dance carpool.

Meanwhile, in the back of the car, child, without meds is eating candy from tutoring.

Pick up and drop off all children involved in dance carpool.

Child without meds had found the snack bag for dancers and has eaten all the m&m's out of the trail mix.

Stop for gas and liquor store (this turned out to be a smart move) and make it home.

Back at home and still not remembering to dole out meds.  Medless child is happily playing Wii and will not respond to "time for dinner", "feed the dogs/cats", "come down here", or "get down here now!".

Dinner time and this is what I get; "I hate you", "Leave me alone", "Why won't anyone leave me alone?", "Mom, I told you we need more batteries",  "I wish I had my old mom back", and "I already told you, I am not hungry".  But then it hits me, finally, this kid needs his meds!
About 5 hours late but he does finally get them.

Now, 2:00AM, he is still up.  He hasn't fallen asleep yet.  He has been in the garage searching for the Halloween candy and left the door open so the downstairs is freezing.  He has drank at least one diet coke and spilled most of it on the kitchen floor.  I have taken away 3 movies and 5 video games along with the DVD player and Nintendo DS.  As I have been writing for 20 minutes I have put him back to bed 5 times. Now he is playing with tape.

Super great.
Can't wait for morning, and school, and sleep.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Sleep

My facebook post a few days ago was about the antics of my son while the rest of us were sleeping. 

It was something like this; beautiful Sunday morning except for the child who hasn't slept and tried to do laundry, watched a few movies, had a few too many caffeinated drinks, and attempted to put lotion on his sister's feet.

That's the thing about children, after you have them you don't get to sleep anymore.  And by sleep, I mean deep, REM sleep, all night, for more than 3-4 hours, without being woken up by a child who is crying out for mom, or trying to crawl into your bed.  You know, that slumber that brings dreams, really good dreams, and when you wake up you are happy.  Happy, because you are no longer tired.

My oldest is 13, so I haven't slept through the night for 13 years.  Seriously.

Here is what happened:

When you have a child with acronyms like we do, that child might also get medications, like ours does.  Sometimes, we forget to give him said meds in the morning and that totally screws up his day.  Also, we were having a garage sale that Saturday and forgot to give him his afternoon meds and he kept getting into the Diet Coke when we weren't looking.  So, really, it was our fault.  Ours meaning daddy, because daddy wasn't really helping with the garage sale so he should have been more on top of that.

Anyways, kids went to bed way too late as usual on a Saturday.  Except the one kept getting up.  And daddy kept putting him back to bed.  I think this happened about three times before it was quiet downstairs and we fell asleep. 

By asleep, I mean, I kept waking up, and daddy kept waking up because we could hear things happening downstairs.  Things like doors opening and closing, wrappers being torn off of food, drinks being opened.

Next morning: wet clothes on the laundry room floor, movies strewn over the upstairs and bedrooms, empty Diet Coke cans, and a very upset sister.





Thursday, October 4, 2012

Blessings

I live a very blessed life.  I know that my life is good, all that I have has come from above.  My husband and I strive to make sure that our children realize that their lives are also very blessed; that they have more than most and to be thankful for all that God has provided in their lives.

This is difficult in so many ways, but mostly because they are 10, 11, and 12.  These "tween" years really stink, but today I saw a glimmer of hope.

Today, my daughter, the 12 year old, lost her phone.  Of course she has a phone.  All 12 year olds have a phone.  If your 12 year old doesn't have their own phone then you are the worst parent on the planet, the worst.   

Sorry, I've heard that a lot.

But today, the 12 year old lost the phone.  She didn't realize at the time she had lost it, but when she was needing her phone she couldn't find it.  Being the great mom that I am, I called her number and waited for it to ring.  The phone was lost in the car, so really it should have turned up pretty quickly. 

Then I get a "Hello?". 
"Hello"  I respond.  Who is this? 

Turns out, that while we were picking up for carpool the phone actually fell out of the car and into the street.  Someone had seen the purple phone and picked it up.  Someone who is my 12 year old's friend.  This friend had scrolled through the contact list and realized who's phone she had found and had been trying to call me, the mother.

Whew!  (although, this is a prime example why a 12 year old shouldn't have a phone)

Tonight at bedtime, my very relieved and grateful daughter, was talking to me (yes me, her mother, she was talking to me) about how happy she was that her friend found her phone.  She said, "mom, I feel really blessed.  I mean, it was totally God who did that.  My phone could have been run over, or someone could have just taken it, but can you believe it was my friend who found my phone.  I'm just so thankful and blessed."

She said it twice.  She is blessed.  I am so thankful!